A Single Session of Exercise Reduces Blood Pressure Reactivity to Stress: a Systematic Review With Meta-analysis

Stressful situations are common in everyday life and disturb homeostasis. So, an exercise session is a strategy to mitigate blood pressure (BP) peaks in response to stress (i.e., BP reactivity), decreasing the cardiovascular risk of these individuals. This is a systematic review with a meta-analysis that aims to verify the effects of a single session of physical exercises on BP reactivity to stress. The searches were realized in digital databases (PUBMED, LILACS, EMBASE and PsycInfo) and 28 studies were included, totaling 846 individuals (meta-analysis stage: k = 24, n = 710). As for exercise characteristics, 23 of the 28 studies focused on aerobic exercises, and 24 studies focused on low to moderate intensities. Favorable metanalytic results (standardized mean differences through random-effects approach) for the exercises were found, with attenuated reactivity in systolic BP (pooled effect size = -0.35 [-0.46; -0.23], representing average reductions of 3.8 ± 3.5 mmHg), diastolic BP (pooled effect size = -0.49 [-0.68; -0.30], representing average reductions of 3.1 ± 3.6 mmHg), and mean BP (pooled effect size = -0.48 [-0.70; -0.26], representing average reductions of 4.1 ± 3.0 mmHg). So, acute physical exercise lowers systolic, diastolic, and mean blood pressure reactivity in response to stressor tasks.